


The Seeker - Interlude: Trust

by vehlr



Series: AU: The Seeker [4]
Category: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, Interlude, Mentioned Previous Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-22
Updated: 2016-05-22
Packaged: 2018-06-10 02:31:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,051
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6935098
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vehlr/pseuds/vehlr
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"I still love you. You will have a lot of work to do to make this up to me, and it will take <i>time</i> to rebuild that trust - for both of us."</p>
<p>The follow-up to the Broken Heart case.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Seeker - Interlude: Trust

Cassandra gets out of hospital three days later.

Hawke beams as she emerges from the reception. “Looking good, Seeker!”

“Thank you.” She smiles as Hawke throws an arm around her shoulder, leaning in slightly. “The doctors are optimistic that my scarring will be minimal, so I suppose that is something. Where is Varric?”

“Back at the office. Said he had some last minute job he really needed to do.”

She frowns, but shrugs it off. “As long as he has no surprises planned -”

“Oh, don’t worry. We all know you hate surprises.” Hawke grins, pressing a kiss to her cheek. “I’m really glad you’re alright, you know. Had me worried for a while there.”

“It was my own fault. I should have disarmed her properly, but… I was just glad Varric was unharmed.”

“All’s well that ends well. And you and him are good now, right? He told you everything?”

“I think it will take a little time, but yes. We will be alright.” She smiles. “Can we leave, now? I tire of pastel green walls.”

“Sure. Let’s get you something to eat. I’ll call Varric and tell him we’re on our way.”

*

The office is in disarray, and Cassandra thinks for a terrifying moment that someone has come for them in their home - but no, in the middle of a whirlwind of papers and a strange odour sits Varric. His sleeves are rolled up and his hair hangs loose around his face as he paws at the desk with a paintbrush.

“Shit,” laughs Hawke. “What the hell happened here?”

He looks up, eyes wild.

“You’re back - you’re early, I’m not - shit, I’m not _done_ -” There is a high tone of panic as his voice cracks.

Cassandra wrinkles her nose. Varnish? That was the strange smell.

“Varric?”

“I thought it’d be done, I’m _sorry_ , I’m really - shit, I’m really sorry -”

“Are you… _quite_ alright?” she asks, mouth pressed into a thin line as Hawke trembles with suppressed laughter.

“What - what’s so funny?” he asks in a small voice.

“Varnish fumes, pal. They'll get you every time.” She slides an arm around his shoulders. “Come on, you need some air.”

Cassandra lets loose a soft laugh as he is guided out towards the inn, limping over to the desk to examine his handiwork. The dark stain was quite fetching, a nice change, and he had not bothered to fix the small nicks and dents that gave it character. Despite everything, it warms her.

She had been kidding, when she had insisted on stripping the desk - well, she concedes, _mostly_ kidding. The sight of Bianca sat on her usual perch, kissing Varric… it was difficult to forget, the lurch in her chest still painful at the memory. But that he had taken her at her word and performed such an arduous task for her… _that_ warms her, their promises to one another ringing in her ears. Perhaps it would be less time than she thought.

She regards the desk for a long moment, before placing her hand into the wet varnish. Pulling away, she smiles slightly at the imprint. Good, she thinks, before heading upstairs to get the mess off her.

*

Varric wakes early, head still aching from the varnish incident. Slipping downstairs, he makes use of the small kitchenette to prepare one large coffee - cream and no sugar - and grabs the pastries from the box he picked up the day prior. He had, after all, promised.

He does not expect her to be awake, but when he opens the door she is sitting up, the early sunlight dancing on her skin as she smiles up at him. His breath catches, his chest tight. Maker, but he was fucking lucky. He needs to make sure he remembers it more often.

He props the tray carefully on the stack of books, coming to rest on the edge of the bed as he brushes the braid over her shoulder.

“I didn’t say it before, but I -” He swallows, hesitating for a moment. “I love you.”

Cassandra smiles up at him, reaching out to brush his cheek. “Varric?”

“I almost lost the chance to tell you.” He presses into her touch. “I almost lost you. And I love you, I love you so _much_ -”

“Hush, my love. It is alright.”

“No, it’s not.” He swallows, rubbing his face. “I hurt you. I can’t undo that. But I can promise better.” He manages a weak smile. “I can promise to be better.”

“You already did -”

“I want to do more.” He shifts as she sits up, holding her hands in his. “I’m not proud of what I did, okay? At the time I thought it was the right thing to do to protect you, but… we’re a team, in everything now. I need to start being a team player.”

“Promise me,” she murmurs, “promise we will move forward in step. That everything that comes for us, we deal with as one.”

“You and me.” His fingers lace through hers. “As one.”

She squeezes his hand lightly. “I promise this also.”

“You don’t have to.”

“I do, Varric. We must be equal in all things.” And then her smile quirks. “Though, do not think you are free from doing the paperwork this week.”

Something in her voice tugs at his heart, and he pulls her into a tight hug, burying his face in the crook of her neck. “I love you,” he mumbles, eyes closing as her arms wrap around his back. “Maker, but I love you so much, Cassandra.”

Her voice is thick, hands tight against his shirt. “I know, my love. I know. I will never doubt it again.”

*

It is three days before the desk is dry enough to be buried in paperwork again, and it is another night and morning before she finds him tracing the lines of her handprint with a smile.

“Just a reminder,” she says.

“Come here,” he murmurs, and squeezes her fingers when she reaches for his hand. Placing her palm against the imprint, he puts her other hand flat against the desk, pressing himself up behind her. “Damned good reminder,” he says in a low voice, and she laughs.

“Not what I meant.”

“Yeah. Still…” His length presses against her and she turns to cup his face in her hands, smile gentle.

“Varric.”

He offers an apologetic look, before pulling away, running a hand through his hair. “Sorry. I don’t know what else to say. I just want us to be normal again. Whatever - whatever normal is.”

“I suppose we have not really had the time to understand what that means for us,” she says. “Everything happened so quickly -”

“Maybe -” He stops, sighing. “Shit. Maybe we should figure that out before we do anything else?”

She leans against the desk, watching him sit down heavily in the chair. “A lot has changed, and not just between us. Bianca managed to escape, and the shipments of red lyrium cannot reliably have been stopped by our intervention.”

“We need to get that stuff out of the city. The damage it could do… I’ve seen it, firsthand.” He swallows. “I, uh… I had a brother.”

“Hawke told me some of the story. You need not tell me the rest.”

He nods. “One day. One day, I’ll tell you all about him.”

She takes his hand in hers, thumb rolling over his knuckles. “We have much to do, and many unanswered questions. But for now, perhaps a little breathing room.”

“Yeah.” He squeezes her finger gently. “I, uh… I know I haven’t been entirely honest, and I know you probably have questions -”

“About Bianca?” She wrinkles her nose. “I suppose she was different, before.”

“So was I.” He shrugs. “She was promised to someone else, and she kept that promise, despite telling me I was more important. She made a good life for herself, or so I thought.”

“She broke your heart.”

“She lied to me. And I lied to you, and broke yours.” He laughs, humourless. “Whole cycle of bullshit, all us Gifted dwarves are good for.”

She cups his chin, raising his face to meet her eyes. “Do not do that. Do not wallow. You lied, yes, but you will not do it again. You will not become like her.”

“Is that a command?”

Her fingers tighten around his chin. “Tell me.”

“I won’t. Not like her. Not like them.”

“We will cleanse your city -”

“Our city.” He jerks his head back, taking her hand. “After all this time, everything you’ve done, you can call it yours too.”

She smiles, ducking her eyes. “You are the heart of Kirkwall -”

“And you’re the heart of me,” he says, kissing the inside of her wrist. “Tell me honestly, if things had… if our partnership had ended there, what would you have done? Where would you have gone?”

“I - I do not know. I stayed with Hawke, but I did not have a plan.”

“Would you have left?”

“I -” She swallows. “I cannot truly say. I have never considered anywhere else to be…”

“Home.”

“You opened your door to me, Varric. You let me in. You will always be where I return to.” She smiles, reaching up to brush his hair from his face. “My home is wherever you are. This city is your home, and so it is mine. We will defend it, we will take down those who seek to profit from its destruction and we will come out stronger than before.”

“Together,” he murmurs.

“Yes.”

“And when you can trust me again -”

She laughs, taking his hand and placing it over the imprint on the desk. “I do, Varric. I do. I am just… smarting from it all. Give me time.”

He smiles up at her. “All the time you need.”

*

It happens when he least expects it.

“Seeker!”

She comes down the stairs, frowning at the slammed door. “Where have you been all afternoon? I thought it was a simple errand -”

“Hawke caught wind of a new dealer in town. We just smoked him for information.” Throwing his duster at the rack, he rolls his sleeves up. “With any luck, we can be on the supplier trail by the end of the…” He trails off, looking up at her. She is silent, staring at him. “What?” “You smoked him.”

“Yeah.”

She makes a noise, half-fond, half-irritated. “Nobody says that anymore, Varric.”

He smiles slightly. “I say it,” he points out. “Always had a way with words.”

“Surely you jest.”

“Hey, I am famous for my tall tales in some circles, I’ll have you kn-”

Her lips silence him, a soft sigh as her hands curl over his shoulders. His arm snakes around her waist, pulling her in close, and he savours the feel of her body against his before he pulls back to look up at her questioningly.

“The map can wait,” she breathes, and Varric nods agreement. “I have to know - Varric, did you… did she -”

“Huh?” His brain catches up. “Oh. No, Maker, not at all. Nothing apart from what you saw -”

“Did you want her to?”

“No!”

“Not at all?”

He pulls away to take her hands in his. “Cassandra, I swear on everything we’ve done together, I wanted no part of… that. Whatever it looked like, whatever you think, I never went near her. I slept on a shitty couch, I kept her away. I just wanted it to be over so that I could come back to you.”

She watches him for a long moment, before releasing a breath. “I am sorry -”

“No, you - you needed to know, it’s okay. I don’t have anything to hide.” He smiles, drawing her in closer. “The man I am now… you’re the heart of me. I don’t want anyone else.”

She smiles, pressing her lips to his forehead. “I trust you,” she whispers.

“You -” He swallows. “You do?”

“Yes, my love. I do.” Pulling back, she fixes him with a sultry look. “The map can wait. Come upstairs in five minutes.”

“Five… five minutes?”

She winks, before heading back up the stairs, a sway to her hips that he has sorely missed.

“Holy shit,” he whispers, “I get to have make-up sex with the Seeker.” He unbuttons his shirt, heading to the stairs. “The hell with five minutes…!”


End file.
